So Fancy Emma turned six in June and seeing that her absolute favorite books are the Fancy Nancy series, we decided to throw our girly-girl a Fancy Nancy birthday party and I wanted to share some of the ideas I found in case anyone out there might want to consider a Fancy Nancy theme!
I love having a theme, it makes party planning so much fun! And this girly-girl mom had a LOT of fun putting together this fancy soiree!
Invitations: I ordered this custom printable Fancy Nancy invitation from Amy at Party Invites on Etsy. So very darling and she was amazing to work with! I would highly recommend her.
We decided to do our first drop off party for the girls ~ which made them feel oh so grown up!
Having girls that like to dress up, the rest of the decorations were fairly easy given the fact that I could use many of the items we already had in our dress up box like boas, jewelry, purses and dress up shoes.
Decor: I rented four 6′ children sized banquet tables and kid sized chairs and did two long tables for the crafts and then two table for dining.
Of course, all the decor was done in light and dark pinks as well as purples! The pink fluffy hanging decorations were found at Party City, along with these tissue paper centerpiece flowers.
On top of the pink table clothes, I put two of these inexpensive Eiffel Tower centerpieces. The clip on butterflies were found at Michaels.
I also had Amy make a sign that said Welcome to the King’s Crown as we were going to be serving pizza for dinner (EASY!)
Activities: I had three different crafts for the girls to work on ~ but first the fun started at the “Accessories Station!”
As the girls arrived, we invited them to come and “Accessorize!” I had my babysitter “work” this station to help all the girls get fancy so we could be free to greet our guests.
I bought a bunch of cheap accessories from Oriental Trading, along with some cheap make-up from the dollar store. Being a germphobe mom, I made sure to also buy Q-Tips and a bag of sponges, so the make-up application was done with disposable items, and not reused. I was also able to find sets of inexpensive jewelry in the $1 bins at Target.
After getting fancy, it was time to craft! The first one we did was based on the Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy book.
I found these adorable mini pink poodles on Birthday Express, only $19.99 for 8. These also doubled as a party favor for the girls to take home as well.
We had an “Accessorize Your Posh Puppy” station where the girls could make collars for their puppies and embellish with beads and jewels.
I cut pieces of bracelet strings (Michaels), self adhesive rhinestone jewels, bag of beads for bracelets (Michaels) then displayed markers and got metal rim tags from Staples so the girls could name their dogs. The love charms were found in store at Joann Fabrics.
The second craft we did was an idea I got from the Fancy Nancy Tea Parties which, incidentally, has a ton of fabulous ideas for tea parties for little girls! I bought pink foam sheets from Michaels, cut them into the shape of a butterfly, then glued a white doile in the center.
The girls they decorated the outside of the butterfly wings with self-adhesive jewels and feathers (bag bought at Michaels) and they made their own placemat for dinner.
The third and final craft was inspired by the Fancy Nancy Spectacular Spectacles book- Emma’s favorite. I started by reading the girls the story so that they were familiar with it.
Then the girls made their own Spectacular Spectacles using these PERFECT plastic glasses I found on Oriental Trading and they decorated them with sticker jewels and feathers.
Amy from Party Invites did all my cute signs in size 8 x 10 so they were easy to print on the computer. I stuck them all in $1 frames I found at the .99¢ Only Store. I loved setting the tone at the door with a Bonjour sign wrapped in a boa!
I also dressed up like the mom in the original Fancy Nancy book and made my husband wear a top hat and homemade boutonierre. He is a very good sport.
Food: I kept the food really simple. While the girls were doing crafts I had fruit skewers (on frilly toothpicks of course!) and then did some Chex Mix and put them out in cupcake wrappers, along with simple cheese and crackers. My mom made a fancy sherbert punch but I didn’t get a photo.
And of course for dessert, we did a Make Your Own Parfait station (that’s fancy for ice cream sundaes). This might have been the biggest hit of the entire party!
Basically this just included Neapolitan ice cream and then toppings like sprinkles, fruit, crushed graham crackers, Oreos, chocolate syrup and whipped cream.
Here is little sis enjoying her sundae. I was able to find the CUTEST bowls for the ice cream in the $1 bins at Target (2 for $1).
Favors: I love a non-edible favor that kids can use, so I thought a Fancy Nancy book would make for a great favor. As luck would have it, on the Scholastic website through my daughter’s school, they had the Everyday is Earth Day on clearance for $2/each since it was right after Earth Day. Score!
I had Amy make me a cute book plate sticker that I printed on these cute labels I found at Staples.
In addition to the crafts, we also did a fashion show at the beginning when all the girls were dressed up, as well as a dance party with Emma’s favorite dance party play list.
Everyone had a fabulous time, and Fancy Nancy was such a fun theme for a girl’s birthday party. Thanks for reading!
[Main graphic above adapted from our Party Invites invitation.]
Love love love this post! My 20 month old is already obsessed with Fancy Nancy! I bet it was a great party!
Oh my gosh, if she already loves Fancy Nancy, just wait til she gets even older!
It was the MOST fun girly theme!!!
I think a Fancy Nancy party is in your future… 🙂
So many adorable ideas!
Thanks Susanne!
How precious! Love every detail!!! So glad I could be a small part of such a beautiful party!
Wow, great job Jen!! Ugh, I need to start thinking about the girls’ parties for this fall. Am I the only woman who actually can’t stand planning bday parties?!
Very fancy and adorable birthday party theme. Little girls will surely love and enjoy this party. This is also a great idea for a teenager’s birthday party.
Love all you do on the party. I’ll planning my daughter 7th birthday with the Fancy Nancy theme, but I’ll made in on a Spa Salon. thanks for share.
Thanks so much for sharing all of your ideas! I plan to copy many of them for my daughter’s fifth birthday party in January. You are a life saver as I am not nearly as creative as you. Thanks again!
I am so happy to help! LOVE this theme!
The kids looks cute seem to be enjoying their birthday. I like this idea of the birthday outdoor in the garden where kids have more space to enjoy adn to have fun. Nice work.
i loved this posting of your party! my daughter is turning 7 and she wanted a Fancy Nancy party — and I was panicked about how to pull this off!! You had some wonderful ideas!!! thanks for your help!!!
Thank you! It was a VERY fun theme! Have fun!
Adorable party! Definitely going to use your ideas for my daughter’s 5th Birthday party. You’re so creative!
Thank you! I had so much fun with this theme. Good luck with your party!
I love all of your Fancy Nancy ideas! I have tried finding the vendor you used for your invitation and cannot find them on Etsy. Can you help?
Rossica, I am so bummed the links seem to be broken. I emailed through Etsy from a past communication string to see if she is still selling these. I will comment back if I hear from her.
In the meantime, on etsy, you can search, “Fancy Nancy Invitations” and a ton of cute ones come up. Good luck!
What an amazing party Jen! I will be borrowing several of your ideas as inspiration for my daughters upcoming 5th birthday! Do you mind me asking where you found the fun diamond jewels you used for decoration and also what you used for glue on the spectacles (wondering if someone should be on duty at the glue gun). ;). Thank you SO much for sharing your amazing ideas.
Such a cute party! Love all your attention to details. I am using some of your awesome ideas for my daughters birthday next month! Thanks for taking the time to post.
What kind of glue is best for the glasses craft?
Daughter’s 7th bday – a success!! We did a pool party – and had stations of activities — we also did ice cream sundae station and spectacular spectacles station!! Kids loved it!! Thanks again!!!
(My daughter likes the mermaid book – so we incorporated swimming)
Melissa : we got gems/feathers from Oriental Trading company (there are peel and stick gems) — I used hot glue for the feathers — I had a separate area (nearby) and when the kids were ready – they showed me where to glue feathers (dried in mere seconds)
Rossica : I made my own invitations – using a Word program and plain white invitations from Staples — I found a Fancy Nancy mermaid image online — and the used a “fancy” font and color change in Word!
Robyn – Yay!!! Thanks for sharing!
Rebecca – Just a regular Craft Glue. And we used the jewels that were self adhesive. Good luck!
This is a fabulous idea! I wish I saw it sooner as I am doing a party elsewhere. These are wonderful suggestions. What would you suggest if you have a Fancy Nancy-themed party, but you a few boys who attend?
Thank you SO much for sharing these ideas. They were easy and fun for my 5 year old’s birthday. There are so many complicated and high maintenance ideas on Pinterest and other sites. These were so doable! Thanks again from a mom much less creative than you!
Lisa, thanks so much for your comment, I am so happy to be of help! I am the same – not super creative – so I wanted to do things that were fairly simple! So happy they helped you too!
Thank you so much for your ideas!!! My daughter is turning 6 at the end of this month and has loved Fancy Nancy for over 2 years. She’s into her now more than ever since she can read the easy books. I love your favor idea and even if we don’t hold a Fancy Nancy themed party this year, I think I’ll start looking for her books as favors.
Gisele, Thanks for your comment! Good luck with your party – and YES – those books make the best party favors!!! Check Scholastic too through your classroom too just in case :).
Thank you so much for sharing your party ideas. I will be stealing many of them for my Olivia’s 5th birthday this June. I love everything you did! Great party!
Thank you so much for this post. All my soon to be 3 yr old keeps saying she wants a “fancy” party an I had absolutely no clue on how I was gona pull it together…But after reading this I have such a better idea!!!